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Voluntary work for promoting mental health

The FAMH is a Finnish non-governmental organization and a federation of over 50 local mental health associations making part of it, hosting approximately 4 000 individual members.

There are also over 30 individual so called association members, which are other social welfare and health organizations, patients' associations and trade unions.

The FAMH assists and supports its local member NGOs by providing training and producing material. There are 5 regional employees collaborating with local associations. Local mental health associations are engaged in versatile work. They have their own development projects and counseling services.

Voluntary Work

Voluntary work has been an important asset of the FAMH activities for many decades. The FAMH trains voluntary support personnel whom the local associations engage in personal support activities. They work voluntarily as crisis helpline councellors, leaders of group activities and supporters to those recovering from mental health problems as well as adolescents in their path towards independent living.

Voluntary support personnel are given basic training in interacting with people. They are also given a comprehensive further training that covers diverse themes including the resources and risk factors of mental well-being, crisis situations and crisis behavior as well as an obligatory course in supervision of voluntary work. To date, there are about 10,000 people having received the training in Finland.

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What is mental health?

The WHO (2013) defines mental health as a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential and can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.

Voluntary work for promoting mental health

Peer Learning: "Participation of young people with mental health issues"

Promoting the (mental) health of young people is also one of the eight action areas in the European youth strategy. The Netherlands EU presidency in the first half year of 2016 addressed this issue during several meetings. Together with Finland - and with the participation of Ireland, Cyprus, Malta, Romania, Greece and Scotland and Estonia - the topic of the participation of young people with mental health issues and the role of youth work will be continued during a peer review.